Non-conformists:Romans 12

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, NASB).

In their book Life-Changing Cross-Cultural Friendships Gary Chapman and Clarence Shuler suggest to us that racial and cultural differences do not have to prevent people from forming friendships. They suggest that racial tensions and cultural differences can be overcome if friendships are developed one friendship at a time. Chapman and Shuler chronicle their meeting for the first time and how their friendship developed. The book is optimistic, but we must ask ourselves if their suggestion is realistically possible? In this article I want to suggest that it is not God’s intention that the present world order will produce racial harmony and cultural integration. Rather, the position taken here is that by God’s own choice God is calling people to be nonconformists so that God can call and establish a new people to serve Him and worship Him.

I take this position from my understanding of the entirety of scriptures recorded in the sixty-six books of the Bible. The Bible, I believe is the authoritative word of God. Its primary intention is that people will come to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only One that makes it possible for people to be reconciled to the Father. Human beings separated from God live by the desires of the flesh and the desires of the flesh never bring about complete harmony among people (See Galatians 5:16-21). Our hope of reconciliation with God, and our hope for unity and harmony are found only when we live by the Spirit which comes to us from God. Those who have the Spirit of God have His nature inside of them. They love because God is love (1 John 4:15-16).

In his letters to the churches; and especially the letters to the Romans and the Galatians Paul wants to show the people that as long as they hold to their human traditions they will never find peace. This idea agrees with the words of Isaiah the prophet who said, “They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks; they have made their paths crooked, whoever treads on them does not know peace (Isaiah 59:8, NASB & see Romans 3:17). On the other hand, Jesus offers Himself as the way of peace. As Jesus was preparing His disciples for His return to the Father, He warned them of the opposition, trials and persecutions that they would endure as His apostles. He said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NASB).

The point is this: Throughout the Scriptures we are shown that God is not trying to bring about wholesale change to this world. Rather, God has chosen to call persons to have faith in Jesus, live outside the norms of this world, and join Him in a new community that does not conform to the world that now exist. This is the reason that Paul wrote to the Romans. He was giving the people a glimpse of the life that they would have if they accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Paul wanted the people to know that it was not his intention to change the world that they lived in. Instead, they must change their relationships that they now have in the world.

As stated above, believers in Christ become citizens in a new community. This new community lives in the world but it does not live by the norms of the world. The religions, philosophies, governments, morals and ethics in the world have no place in the new community. The world cannot make things better. On the contrary, the community loose it saltiness and its light when it does not keep itself separated from the world (see Matthew 5:13-16). Let me give an example from the medical profession of what God is calling His people to be.

A patient in the hospital has an open wound covered with a gauze dressing that is changed three times a day. In order to change the dressing the nurse follows strict protocols and procedures. The nurse removes the old contaminated dressing. Next the nurse sets up a sterile field. The nurse places sterile supplies on the sterile field. With sterile gloves on the nurse places a sterile dressing on the wound. This may sound simple, but there is an additional requirement for the procedure. If anything that is not sterile touches the sterile field even at the edge of the sterile field the sterile field is considered totally contaminated. The field must be removed and a new sterile field is established. Thus, in the same way, Jesus tells the apostles to keep themselves separated from the world. They are sterile; the world is a contaminant to their purity.

In Romans Paul writes that the whole world is lost. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24, NASB). We are justified by faith (Romans 5:1) and given grace because the blood of Jesus redeems us from sin. Now, for many people this teaching is a serious problem. The Jews did not agree with Paul because of their insistence that the Law must be obeyed in order for one to be saved. At the same time the Gentiles relied on their philosophies for salvation even though they did not all agree about which philosophy they should depend on. Paul concluded that the cross collided with the wisdom of men. “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24, NASB). Again, we can see that there is no place for the world in the kingdom of God. Those that believe in Jesus separate themselves from the world. They become non-conformists. Who is a non-conformist?

I used Goggle to find the word non-conformist. These are some of the definitions that I found. A non-conformist is a person whose behavior or views do not conform to prevailing ideas and practices. A non-conformist does not behave according to accepted standards and customs. A non-conformist is one who is not content to keep things as they are. Instead they seek and find real change that affects millions of lives in a positive way.

Paul writes that those that believe in Jesus must reject the world and conform to the mind of Christ. This was the message that the apostle wrote about in Romans 11. The Jews did not understand that Jesus did not come to abolish the law. The Jews would not be extracted from the covenant that the Lord had established with their forefathers. Rather, the problem was that the Jews had been seeing the Law from a worldly point of view. Their point of view was devoid of the mind of Christ. Now, this was God’s doing. Paul writes, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all” (Romans 11:32, NASB). In verses 33-36 Paul says that only those that have the mind of Christ can understand God. How does one have the mind of Christ? Thus our text is given as a prescription to remove worldly thinking in order to have the mind of Christ.

First, Paul says that we can know the mind of Christ only because of the mercy of God. It cannot be accomplished by human effort. Second, we must sacrifice our bodies. This means that we must give up satisfying the desires and needs of the body that conflict with the will of God. Instead of sacrificing bulls and goats, we must sacrifice ourselves. The word “holy” indicates that we must remove those behaviors that we have learned in the world that are not pleasing to God. Again, think of the sterile field for the dressing change. Any behavior that is not godly pure contaminates our minds so that we do not have the mind of Christ. Thirdly, we change behavior when we have a change of mind. The only way that we can change our mind is to become a non-conformist. When we become a non-conformist we refuse to be conformed to the world. Our lives become transformed to the image of Christ. In this way we “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2).

At the beginning of this article authors Chapman and Shuler suggested that our differences can be overcome by applying godly methods to establish friendships with persons that are not like us. However, Paul suggest to us that there must be a change in mind and behavior made possible, not by establishing friendships, but by becoming a non-conformist in the world, rejecting the mind and behaviors that hinder us from having the mind of Christ. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed into the likeness of Christ by walking according to the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), having the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).